Title: Look – Season One
Directed by: Adam Rifkin
Starring: Ali Cobrin, Matt Bushell, Claudia Christian, Marcus Giamatti, Giuseppe Andrews, Sharon Hinnendael and Richard Speight Jr.
Running time: 30min episodes/5 hours & 8 minutes, TV-M
An 11 episode TV version of Adam Rifkin’s 2007 mockumentary Look, recast (with exception to convenience store employees Willie & Carl), but with the same format of following an array of characters seen through surveillance cameras, cell phones and camcorders.
After watching this series, I don’t think I could ever go into a changing room again. It also makes me show my age by asserting my opinion that so many teenagers are idiots, but that can only be blamed on their equally idiotic and selfish parents.
Claudia Christian as the cokehead mother Stella was such a detestable character, that you felt bad for her husband and two children, and the fact she kept getting away with stuff was annoying. I could go without watching her getting her butt waxed. The two snobby teenage girls Molly & Hannah (Ali Cobrin & Sharon Hinnendael) needed some old fashioned public beatings for being so whorish and bratty; Hannah more so than Molly. I liked how they happened to find footage of the homeless guy before he became homeless, so his character is given some depth and not just seen as a depressing crack addict.
I get how reality shows are popular because the people who are in them are total train wrecks, but the people who watch them on a weekly basis and actually have favorite characters that they emulate should probably consider sterilization.
There’s lots of sex, nudity, rape, drug use and violence, so be forewarned; but it’s got some great comedic moments as well. There are no special features on the 2-discs. The only way I enjoyed the series is knowing it wasn’t real life. The cliffhanger alone with the rapist and one of the main characters makes me interested in seeing a 2nd season.
Total Rating: B
Reviewed by: JM Willis
